God Save Our Queen. A personal reflection on the loss of my hero, Donna Summer

Today, recording artist and entertainer Donna Summer, passed away from cancer.

I discovered the news as I was attending a strategic planning meeting in the city of Ann Arbor for a statewide coalition to attain equality for lesbian, gay, bi and transgender residents in Michigan. I received a text message and I let out a gasp and rested my forehead on my hand. My colleagues asked what was wrong and I said aloud “Donna Summer passed away!” I was devastated. You see the last meeting I attended with these same people, my other hero Don Cornelius, entrepreneur and host of Soul Train suddenly passed away. I then said, “Every time I’m with y’all, someone dies!” They laughed. I didn’t. Respectfully the facilitator allowed a moment of silence in her honor.

LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948 – May 17, 2012) known by the stage name Donna Summer, was an American singer/songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and was a five-time Grammy Award winner. She was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums (Live and More, Bad Girls, and On The Radio: Greatest Hits Volume I & II) reach number one on the US Billboard chart, and she also charted four number-one singles in the within a 13-month period.

Within this year a lot will be said in print, television and the web about her stella career in music, her personal struggles with fame, marriage and depression. I’m sure there will be tributes by the rich, affluent and the famous, but please allow me to briefly share with you what she meant to me.

I came “out of the closet” in the disco era as a very young teenager. Many types of disco records were playing on the radio and stereos during that time, but it was Donna Summer songs that played most often. They were great recordings. I remember vividly buying her 45s and 12” records and saving up enough money to purchase the Bad Girls double LP (a whopping $8.99). The Bad Girls LP was like the LP “Songs In The Key of Life” by Stevie Wonder ... every household owned a copy. I cherished it and played it at any given opportunity to learn the lyrics to every song. My favorite song on the LP was “Dim All The Lights.” It had the wonderful melodic moderate beginning with that driving disco beat speeding up the song’s tempo and momentum, thus taking me higher to disco heaven. Yes ... disco heaven. Later I discovered that this LP helped define disco’s popularity and influenced international pop culture, but at the time her voice was the center of my discovery and my new found identity.

Though she was not the founder of disco, she became the heart and soul to the sound. Though disco was later criticized back then it was the great denominator for so many kinds of people wanting to get together, having fun and dancing the night away. I danced and enjoyed every disco beat off her many records. Let’s not forget that Donna Summer and her long standing musical partner, the magnificent producer and songwriter Giorgio Moroder continued the tradition of the diva sound machine (a la 1960s Diana Ross with songwriters Holland/Dozier/Holland, and Dionne Warwick with Bacharach/David).

Her loss saddened me and immediately compelled me to take a moment to salute a champion for so many. Through her talent Americans of all backgrounds developed a freedom of expression, a willingness to love, and we learn how to boogie in the process. Here in Detroit, I ask you to join me as I plan to take a moment at KICK's Tea Party this Saturday, May 19 to pause and honor her and acknowledge her legacy to the movement I love. Today, I pay tribute to her by playing her songs ... digitally and on vinyl.

God save our hero ... The Queen of Disco ... and so much more!

A. Nzere Kwabena

Detroit, MI

May 17, 2012